medical

Smoking scars DNA in clear patterns, researchers reported this week. And while most of the damage fades after five years if people quit smoking, researchers found that not all of it does.

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NBC News reported that information based on a study of 16,000 people. The patterns are made in a process called methylation, which is an alteration of DNA that can inactivate a gene or change how it functions — often causing cancer and other diseases, researchers said.

Heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic damage — some of it inherited, but most of it caused by day-to-day living. Smoking is one of the biggest causes, researchers said.

The research team examined blood samples given by 16,000 people taking part in various studies since 1971. In all of the studies, people have given blood samples and filled out questionnaires about smoking, diet, lifestyle and their health histories.

They found smokers had a pattern of methylation changes affecting more than 7,000 genes, or one-third of known human genes. Many of the genes had known links to heart disease and cancers known to be caused by smoking.

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable illness, killing more than 480,000 Americans every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A French woman, who was the world’s first recipient of a face transplant, died in April “after a long illness,” hospital officials said Tuesday.

Isabelle Dinoire, 49, lost her nose and mouth after a dog bite. She made medical history on Nov. 27, 2005, when she was given a partial face transplant using tissue from a brain-dead woman during a 15-hour operation at Amiens Picardie hospital.

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Hospital officials in Amiens confirmed Dinoire’s death, explaining that the delay in announcing her passing was “in accordance with the will of her relatives,” who wished to protect their privacy.

Although doctors did not elaborate on the cause of death, the French media reported that Dinoire had suffered complications following her latest surgery. Le Figaro reported that Dinoire’s body had rejected the transplant last year “and she had lost part of the use of her lips.”

At the age of 38, Dinoire received a triangular-shaped graft, comprising the nose, lips and chin, to replace parts of her face that had been mauled by Tanya, her pet cross-Labrador.

For months before the transplant, she had “the face of a monster,” she said. She had no mouth and her teeth and gums were exposed.

After her surgery, Dinoire said she was determined to make a success of her life, learning to eat and speak and also wanting to be able to kiss.

Since Dinoire’s surgery, more than 30 people worldwide have had similar treatment.

“The claims that we have got are false accusations,” Strickland told reporters. “They’re malicious. The whole thing feels like an extraction extortion.”

Grigsby’s wife claimed that after several hours in the waiting room, she wanted to know what was going on with his procedure. She said doctors told her that they were scared the infection would spread from one tooth that was abscessed. They were expecting Strickland to pull only four teeth.

“There is blood all over him, all over his shirt,” she told WRTV, “and my husband is droopy eyed, not responsive.”

Strickland said, “Donny had multiple large cavities in almost every tooth,” and “the cavities were so extensive that they were into the nerves of multiple teeth.” After laying out the treatment options to Grigsby, “Donny signed the treatment plan and an Oral Surgery Consent Form for a full mouth extraction," Strickland said.

Strickland also claims that Grigsby failed to mention health history such as being on blood thinners, or his history of blood clotting when filling out his medical history form.

“It would have been good to know if he was on blood thinners, or if he wasn’t on blood thinners because either way it tells us there was some other historical issues going on,” Strickland told WXIN. “And neither one was discussed.”

According to the reports, Strickland and his legal team are seeking a court order to allow him to comment in full detail about all of his interactions with the Grigsbys.

Grigsby's wife, Amanda, said that after five hours of waiting at White River Dental, she learned that the dentist decided to pull all of Grigsby's teeth because he was afraid an infection would spread.

Amanda said she found Grigsby covered in blood. While at the dentist's office, they called an ambulance. She said that on the way to the hospital, he "coded" twice.

"When I first started to lose my hair and my eyebrows and eyelashes, I thought, 'This situation is so sick with irony because of my job,'" Rye told ABC News. "I would say it jokingly to people but I was really crying on the inside. I think that was the first step on my journey."

At one point, the 41-year-old decided no woman should ever feel the way she did. That's when she decided to pose for a photoshoot and post the pictures to Facebook. Her aim was to encourage and inspire other "pink ladies."

“With cancer comes destruction," Rye wrote in the post. "However, it has also provided me with the opportunity to rebuild from the inside out. I have shed what is no longer necessary and quite honestly, impeded my growth.

Rye noted that when she first started modeling 20 years ago, women of color did not embody the “American concept of beauty.”

“I was told I was too dark, too light, too curvy, or that my hair was too dry, too curly, or too big,” she wrote on Facebook. “Then the curvy Brazilian girls took over the fashion industry, God bless them, and my career took off.”

When she was diagnosed with cancer, she faced similar adversity:

"Many of the celebrated parts of a woman that our culture defines as beauty I no longer have: eyebrows, hair, eyelashes," Rye wrote. "Chemotherapy wreaks havoc on your body slowly. My sum of parts once interconnected and harmonious are now dissembled and out of tune."

And yet, Rye said cancer has helped her become confident and comfortable with being “alone:”

“When I say I am alone, I mean free of a man, career, role, or title I may have clung to in the past to define myself," she wrote. "My happiness does not depend on the love, reassurance, loyalty, or approval of another. I am simply Mieko. I have nothing to hide. I have stage 3 breast cancer, and I have never felt more beautiful in my entire life.”

Rye plans to have a bilateral mastectomy soon -- a decision she said was inspired by her 7-year-old son.

"I'm more happy now because I know myself so much better and I love myself so much more," she told ABC. "I'm going to own this and I want other women to be inspired and own it as well. It's more about the inner beauty and when that shines through, you're just as beautiful. You haven't lost anything. You've gained it."

I had this idea to do a photo shoot while battling cancer. When I first began my career as a model 20 years ago I did...Posted by Mieko Rye on Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Etubics Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company in Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, is moving forward after a major breakthrough in treating cancer patients. A new type of treatment more than doubled the life span of some cancer patients.

Now, the lab has the backing of the National Cancer Institute in testing its immunotherapy for cancer patients.

Etubics more than doubled the life span of advanced stage colorectal cancer patients using a new vaccine with a new delivery method. Now NCI will spend tens of millions of dollars in Phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials.

“We anticipate the results are going to be even better, and I'll tell you why,” said Dr. Frank Jones, Etubics CEO. “The National Cancer Institute is giving us two more drugs that we'll be adding to the drug we used in our trials.”

Biopharmaceutical companies are able to use vaccines to give a cancer patient cells that attack the cancer cells, but the vaccine is only part of the story.

The new treatment will be used beyond surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Previously they had to take cells out of the cancer patient's body, then apply the vaccine, and put the cancer killer cells back into the patient's body. So this is another major advancement. The new delivery method is just like a flu shot. It’s a one-time shot of the vaccine right into the patient's body to induce cancer killer cells.

Under the new trials, they're targeting more types of cancer.

“We'll be able to treat a lot more kinds of cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer,” said Jones. “If all goes well, and we hope it does, we should have it in the hands of oncologists within three years.”

A group of physicians have recently criticized Dr. Oz for his alleged shortcuts around medical issues. Specifically their claim says Dr. Oz exhibts "an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain."

In an exclusive to Time, Oz fired back over what appears to be a difference in philosophies.

Oz says that he has been working for years to get GMO labeling on foods that fit the category. He notes that the lead author of the letter asking for his ouster, Dr. Henry Miller, is on the pro-GMO side and has led efforts to block GMO labeling in California.

"As a scientist, I am not that concerned about GMOs themselves, but I am worried about why they were created," Oz writes in Time. He believes the gratuitous chemicals could be harmful to humans and believes consumers should be informed about the products they buy.

A handful of the letter's authors are also linked to big tobacco industries as potential allies, according to Oz.

The letter's authors, as well as the British Medical Journal, have said Oz has made medical claims that are not backed by evidence.

Oz, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon, addressed the critics on his Thursday show and because of it will inevitably reach more people than the 10 physicians who wrote the letter.

A communications official at Columbia University told the New York Times the school "is committed to the principle of academic freedom, which means our faculty are encouraged to participate in public discussion."

Parents always have dreams and goals for their unborn children. Brandi McGlathery and Troy Thompson are no different. "I said I wanted him to have blond hair," Brandi recalled. "And Troy said, 'I hope he doesn't get my nose.'"

Eli was born with a condition called complete congenital arhinia, one of only 37 cases. Simply put, it means exactly what Brandi screamed, he doesn’t have a nose. The baby began breathing through his mouth immediately. “Didn't faze him at all," Brandi told the site.

Brandi said doctors took Eli out of the room for several minutes, then quietly returned alone.

"He had the most apologetic look," she told the site. Doctors explained the condition and then rushed Eli to a specialty hospital. Doctors performed a tracheotomy to help Eli breathe more easily.

There are other complications. Eli has no sinus cavities and won’t be able to smell. His brain is lower in his skull, and his palate aren’t completely formed.

Despite the problems, Brandi became the first mother to breastfeed a complete congenital arhinia child.

http://www.gofundme.com/Posted by Eli's Story on Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Go Fund Me account has raised nearly $5,000 to help with the “years of surgeries and doctor's appointments nowhere close to us," Brandi concluded. You can follow the progress on Eli's facebook page.